If Alabama was a country, 5th highest incarceration rate in the world!

CNN/ORC Poll, June 16-19, 2016

Do you favor or oppose stricter gun control laws?

Favor/Oppose
55%/42%

Favor/Oppose
92%/8%

Favor/Oppose
87%/12%

Favor/Oppose
85%/14%

Favor/Oppose
9%/90%

52% agree

64% agree

Enough. -H

A look at the 4 gun bills up for vote in Senate

► An amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would allow the attorney general to deny a gun sale to anyone if she has a "reasonable belief" — a lesser standard than "probable cause" — that the buyer was likely to engage in terrorism. The proposal is popularly known as the "no-fly, no-buy" amendment, but wouldn't just apply to people on the "no fly" terrorist watch list.

► An Republican alternative by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, which would require that law enforcement be alerted when anyone on the terror watch list attempts to buy a weapon from a licensed dealer. If the buyer has been investigated for terrorism within the past five years, the attorney general could block a sale for up to three days while a court reviews the sale.

► An amendment by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would make it more difficult to add mentally ill people to the background check database, giving people suspected of serious mental illness a process to challenge that determination.

► An amendment by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that would close the "gun show loophole" by requiring every gun purchaser to undergo a background check, and to expand the background check database.

Bernie Sanders to return to Senate for gun vote

By Nicole Gaudiano, USA TODAY

Bernie Sanders may still be a presidential candidate, but on Monday he’s returning to his day job.

The Vermont senator will cast his first votes since January on gun legislation Monday after his absence from a Democrat-led filibuster Wednesday drew an angry response on social media. The 15-hour filibuster was held to demand action in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting on legislation to ban gun sales to suspected terrorists and expand background checks for gun buyers.

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Sanders returned to Vermont late Tuesday after a meeting with the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton following the final primary of the Democratic campaign in D.C. He remained there for the video address Thursday night, but he tweeted from his Senate account his support for Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who led the filibuster.

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Sanders, who has represented gun-friendly Vermont in Congress for more than two decades, was hammered for his gun record by Clinton, who said he has sided with the gun lobby on key legislation. He has rejected her criticism and said he supports President Obama’s actions to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

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When Republicans take over.

Hillary Clinton is reportedly targeting Elizabeth Warren...

Hillary Clinton is considering Sen. Elizabeth Warren for her running mate for the Democratic presidential ticket, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing several people familiar with the process.

Warren, a leading progressive voice among Democrats, is among those whom Democratic presidential candidate Clinton is vetting for the vice presidential position, the newspaper reported. Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders is not, it added.

Sources told Reuters earlier this month that Warren, who represents Massachusetts, is considering the potential role.

Why Elizabeth Warren Would Be a Fantastic Choice for Vice President

Source: Washington Monthly, David Atkins

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There are some, however, who suggest that nominating Warren as vice president would be a bad idea. Opponents of Warren as vice president have three chief objections.

First is that nominating her would make the path to Senate control harder for Democrats by forcing a special election for her seat that Democrats might lose or at least that might divert much-needed resources. However, a number of commentators including Washington Monthly alum Ed Kilgore have noted that nominating Warren would likely have little effect on Democratic Senate fortunes because Warren would have a range of options about when to optimally resign her seat, and Massachusetts Democrats would have significant time to prepare for that eventuality.

The second comes from concern that Warren would add little of demographic or regional electoral value to a ticket that already has a northeastern white woman on it. That’s a possibility, but it likely overestimates the degree to which regional, gender and racial identity appeals now matter in national elections while underestimating the need to reassure Clinton’s progressive detractors. It also overemphasizes electoral politics over policy concerns in a year where the Republican nominee is singularly likely to lose in any event.

The third and final objection is that Elizabeth Warren is more useful to progressive causes where she is in the Senate. This was certainly the biggest objection made by Clinton supporters to Warren’s jumping into the presidential race against her back in the fall (though those objections conveniently seem to be sliding away by Clinton’s boosters today as Warren’s effectiveness as an attack surrogate against Trump manifests itself.) There is something to be said for the idea that Warren would be sidelined as a vice-president whereas she might be able to have more impact on legislation in the Senate.

But that misjudges the potential power of the vice presidency to affect executive policy. Liberals already underestimated the power of the vice president at the beginning of the Bush-Cheney era to their detriment.

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From our 2012 Democratic Party Platform...

and what we are fighting for right now!

This is who we are!

Firearms. We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans' Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements—like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole—so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.

Senate close to votes on gun-control measures but no bipartisan agreement in sight